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Climate Alliance demands amendment of the Basic Law: Climate protection in the municipalities must be made legally more effective and its financing must be placed on a solid constitutional basis. This is demanded by a broad alliance of environmental associations and trade unions, including the DGB, IG Bau and Verdi. The civil society coalition is based on a legal opinion prepared by climate protection lawyer Roda Verheyen on behalf of Germanwatch and Climate Alliance Germany. Conclusion: The Basic Law would have to be amended to make co-financing of municipal climate protection from federal funds possible. sueddeutsche.de

World Economic Forum in Davos: Von der Leyen presents plan for environmentally friendly industry. EU Commission President von der Leyen has outlined her plan for an environmentally friendly industry at the World Economic Forum.Von der Leyen said that with the „Green Deal Industry Plan“ the EU should not only remain a pioneer on the path to an environmentally friendly future, but also hold its own economically against China and the USA. In concrete terms, the plan envisages creating more favourable conditions for suppliers in the fields of wind and solar energy, heat pumps and green hydrogen. Other points include greater financial support for environmentally friendly technologies and a reduction in dependence on important raw materials. deutschlandfunk.de

Around one million jobs

The number of workers in the European solar industry must double by 2030, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. More than one million people would be needed there by then, the top German politician told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. „This is a big challenge.“ But this is also a good opportunity to create jobs of the future, she said. This will be made an absolute priority, von der Leyen said. welt.de

Waste exports to third countries: EU Parliament votes for stricter rules. EU countries export millions of tonnes of waste to the rest of the world – including to countries with poor environmental standards. Now the European Parliament has voted in favour of stricter regulations. According to the parliament’s proposal, waste should in future only be allowed to be exported to certain countries outside the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). spiegel.de

The travails of the level: His influence is limited, says Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir. In order for agriculture as a whole to become more environmentally friendly, the greatest lever we have in agricultural policy is also needed. That is the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, with its billions in agricultural subsidies. He had inherited a CAP that had been negotiated by the previous government. But the next CAP must bear our signature: we want to gradually change the system of direct payments to rewarding public services for more sustainability – he is also campaigning for this in Brussels. In addition, he said, he also had tough opponents who did not want the restructuring. The crisis in animal husbandry in Germany does not affect everyone equally. Smaller farms in particular are being knocked out of the curve. Others, however, had also adapted very well to it, and they were very articulate and well organised. Not everyone sees the political necessity that small, family-run farms with animal-friendly husbandry should also be allowed to have a future. taz.de

Scrap CO2 certificates: CO2 climate protection certificates have become a lucrative business, because they are something like a modern indulgence trade for industry. Over the years, millions of CO₂ certificates have apparently been sold that should not have existed. In numerous forest protection projects, the CO2 compensation was overvalued many times over because the rules of the most important certifier on the market allowed it – and the supervision failed. Companies such as Disney, Shell or Gucci are said to have invested in projects that were clearly overestimated. Questionable methods are said to have been used in the valuation of these CO₂ certificates. Apparently, millions of certificates were sold that should not have existed because the CO₂ offsets of the projects are highly overvalued. spiegel.de , zeit.de

No speed limit by citizen demand: Individual citizens cannot enforce a speed limit on motorways with a constitutional complaint. This was the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court last week. A man and a woman who had approached the Federal Constitutional Court without a lawyer criticised the inadequate climate policy. Especially in the transport sector, it is unlikely that the CO₂ budget allocated until 2030 can be met, they argued. If sufficient efforts are not made now to reduce greenhouse gases, they (like all citizens) would be threatened with all the more severe restrictions on their fundamental rights towards the end of the decade. bundesverfassungsgericht.de, taz.de

BOOK TIP OF THE WEEK:

Der Norden taucht ab

Die Klimakrise als gesellschaftliche Herausforderung

Man-made climate change is a reality – and Generation Z will have to live with the inevitable consequences. To keep them minimal, everyone must take decisive action against climate change. While the effects are more visible in some regions than in other parts of the world, they will ultimately affect all of humanity, directly or indirectly.

To educate today’s generation of children and young people about the causes, mechanisms and consequences of climate change, the Department of Biology and Didactics at the European University of Flensburg has designed a travelling exhibition for schoolchildren. While the project starts geographically in the coastal region of northern Germany, which is particularly affected by climate change, its perspective goes beyond that. This accompanying book informs about the development process, the results and the resonance of the project. It encourages pupils to actively engage with their lifestyles together with their teachers – for a sustainable, climate-friendly and future-conscious lifestyle. CC licence type: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 oekom.de

New strategies: Across Europe, energy companies are looking for greener business models. But fossil fuels are also gaining in importance again. handelsblatt.com
Onshore wind power: New push for onshore wind power. tagesschau.de
Scathing verdict: How McDonalds and Co comply with the reusable packaging obligation. utopia.de
Lützerath: RWE wants to sue for damages. fair-economics.de
Bavaria: Greens for new ten-billion-euro package for energy transition. zeit.de
Need to catch up: The new supply chain law is supposed to help avoid abuses at suppliers of German companies. But a study shows: Only few companies inform themselves comprehensively about their suppliers. tagesschau.de
The electricity paradox: When there is a lot of wind in the north, there is a shortage of electricity in the south and it has to be bought from abroad. wiwo.de
High food prices: Federal Environment Agency calls for VAT reform on plant-based foodstuffs. fair-economics.de
30 gigawatts by 2030: Federal government wants to boost expansion of offshore wind energy. heise.de

The seventeeen goals magazine tells inspiring stories about how people move the world and shows how everyone can make a contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

PODCAST OF THE WEEK:

Economist Grimm: „The Greens have jumped over many, many shadows“.

One year of the turn of the century also means one year of the energy crisis. However, Germany continues to lag behind in the restructuring of its energy supply. And Germany as a business location continues to come under high price pressure. Many players are resisting change,“ says Veronika Grimm in the WirtschaftsWoche podcast Chefgespräch. When it comes to the energy transition, Germany has been „far too ponderous“ and those responsible have done „far too little“. Grimm is an economist at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She is a member of the „Wirtschaftsweisen“, a renowned energy expert – and with her mixture of pragmatism and sobriety she was not only one of the most important advisors to the German government (for example in the Gas Commission). She was also one of its harshest critics. …But that’s not all. Grimm calls the state of affairs that will befall German industry New Normal: with permanently higher energy prices. Germany as a business location, she says, „is under pressure with regard to our competitiveness“. Especially since prices in the USA are much lower. In general, the transformation to a climate-neutral, sustainable industry is a dangerous undertaking – necessary, but dangerous: „The transformation will be expensive and time-consuming and a burden for many actors,“ says the economist. Or to put it another way: Robert Habeck is unlikely to get bored. wiwo.de

COMMENT OF THE WEEK:

Photo: Messe Berlin

Rethinking / Comment by Karl Schlieker on the Green Week

Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir gives the hall with animals a wide berth on the opening tour of the Green Week. As an avowed vegetarian, the Green politician sets clear accents, clearer than some of his predecessors. But it is not just a diversion at the agricultural showcase: the minister wants to make meat consumption indirectly more expensive. Lowering the VAT on fruit, vegetables and pulses would indeed be a signal for healthy nutrition. Plant-based food indisputably pollutes the climate less than animal products. Moreover, fruit and vegetables are significantly healthier than many excessively sweetened foods. However, the actual relief for consumers with a waiver of VAT on fruit at the point of purchase is comparatively small. But often a high-profile signal helps more than direct bans or restrictions on the sale of meat, for example. Consumers, however, will not be able to bear the sole responsibility for the change in agriculture. Above all, the billions of euros in European agricultural policy must be accompanied by stricter criteria so that ecological goals are more strongly reflected. The various goals of biodiversity, climate protection and animal welfare must be combined with food security and a livelihood for farmers that ensures their economic survival. This will not work without public support. finanznachrichten.de

MOBILITY:

Why e-scooters can contribute to the traffic turnaround after all: There is an emotional debate about the scooters. Yet there is much to suggest that e-scooters can make traffic greener – if the conditions are right. zeit.de

Implementation of the 49 Euro Tickets stucks : The implementation of the 49-Euro-Ticket is apparently proving far more difficult than expected. According to the government, there are „a number of open points“ that have not yet been cleared. The CDU/CSU is already talking about a „setback for public transport“. rp-online.de

Green aviation: NASA and Boeing work on passenger aircraft of the future: Using a demonstration aircraft, NASA and Boeing want to test new technologies for environmentally friendly commercial aviation. The US space agency NASA and the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing want to jointly develop a passenger aircraft to make aviation more environmentally friendly. This was announced by NASA at a presentation on Wednesday. To this end, a full-size demonstration aircraft is being built as part of the „Sustainable Flight Demonstrator“ project, on which the partners involved want to validate techniques for reducing emissions. heise.de

Maersk invests in C1 to power climate-neutral shipping: Berlin-based start-up has found way to industrially produce green methanol at a competitive price. chemie.de

E-cars on ships: First shipping company no longer takes electric cars on board.Burning electric cars on a ship can lead to a disaster, as happened last year with the sinking of the „Felicity Ace“ with thousands of luxury vehicles. Now Havila in Norway is the first shipping company to ban the transport of e-cars. manager-magazin.de

Mobility worldwide: Getting around better – by bike, on foot or by air taxi?  Around the globe, governments are tinkering with transport concepts for tomorrow. riffreporter.de

HYDROGEN:

Germany and the Netherlands can benefit massively from green hydrogen: Germany and the Netherlands have the best chances of benefiting from the industry’s conversion to green hydrogen. This is the conclusion of a study by the Centre for European Policy (CEP), which examines the regional opportunities of the European hydrogen economy. „The Netherlands and the neighbouring German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are ideal hydrogen consumers in terms of their industrial structure. At the same time, due to the nearby North Sea, both regions offer the greatest potential in Europe for future offshore parks whose wind energy can be used to produce hydrogen,“ said study author André Wolf.  However, excessive regulation could put the good position at risk. rnd.de

Hamburg: One of Germany’s largest hydrogen production facilities is to be built at the site of the discarded Moorburg coal-fired power plant in the Port of Hamburg – an electrolyser with a capacity of 100 MW, which will later be expanded to 800 MW. According to Dominic Völz, press officer at Hamburg’s Ministry of Economics and Innovation (BWI), the envisaged hydrogen project on the Moorburg site will begin as early as the next few months with the „modular dismantling of the power plant facilities and the construction of the electrolyser“. „Whereby as much as possible of the existing plants is to be reused,“ Völz continues. energiezukunft.de

Australia: The world’s largest plant for green hydrogen is being built on the fifth continent. 15 million tonnes are to be produced here in a few years. The climate saver is, of all people, a mining billionaire. Currently, a production facility for electrolysers is being built. The plant will produce the equivalent of two gigawatts per year and will be the largest plant in the world. And with these electrolysers, green hydrogen can be produced. But doubts remain. deutschlandfunkkultur.de

(Foto:Storag Etzel)

Gasunie enters hydrogen storage in Germany: Gasunie becomes consortium partner in „H2CAST Etzel“, the hydrogen storage pilot project in the Etzel cavern field in Lower Saxony.  This has now been announced by STORAG ETZEL and Gasunie. For Gasunie, this participation is the first step towards the development of hydrogen storage in Germany. With H2CAST, the abbreviation for „H2CAvern Storage Transition“, STORAG ETZELand Gasunie, together with their project partners, want to enable the storage of hydrogen in the Etzel salt caverns. fair-economics.de

Hydrogen transport: Thyssengas acquires German-Dutch pipeline: Thyssengas wants to establish a hydrogen connection between Germany and the Netherlands. To this end, the transmission system operator has now acquired a cross-border natural gas pipeline that is to be converted to hydrogen. chemietechnik.de

How does hydrogen get into the plant? More and more companies want to use hydrogen in their production processes – but it’s not quite that simple: only a handful of plant manufacturers understand the necessary feed-in technology – and it’s a tough one. process-vogel.de

LAST WEEK IN THE BUNDESTAG:

Union wants to speed up search for final repository: The CDU/CSU parliamentary group demands that the search for a final repository be accelerated. According to a motion (20/5217), which is on the Bundestag’s agenda for the first time on Thursday, it is necessary to „identify and exploit any potential for acceleration within the framework of the Site Selection Act“. However, public participation and technical quality must not be curtailed. bundestag.de

Climate-friendly public procurement still in its infancy: Germany is still in its infancy when it comes to climate-friendly public procurement, according to Jakob Gross, Head of Division Z 1.5 „Administrative Project Support, Central Procurement Office“ at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). Nevertheless, great steps have been made and decades of persuasion have been achieved, he said during a public meeting of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development on Wednesday evening. There is now a consensus, he said, that policies and socio-political objectives are allowed to find their way into procurement procedures as part of the public sector’s right to perform and determine, and must be observed under the premise of coherent administrative action. „No one who is to be taken seriously speaks of criteria that are alien to the awarding of contracts any more,“ said Gross. more at bundestag.de

AfD fails with motion on restitution of cultural property: The AfD parliamentary group has failed with its demand for the establishment of an independent advisory commission on the handling of cultural property from colonial contexts in the Culture Committee. The committee unanimously rejected the corresponding motion (20/3696) with the votes of all other parliamentary groups on Wednesday. The Bundestag will finally discuss and vote on the motion on Thursday. According to the AfD, the commission should be organised along the lines of the so-called Limbach Commission in connection with the restitution of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution and should only be able to make recommendations without any legal binding force in the case of restitution claims to German museums. The AfD proposes that the commission be named after the African researcher Gustav Nachtigal. Nachtigal was appointed Reich Commissioner for the German colonies in West Africa by Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884. Contrary to „what many media reports coloured by post-colonial theories try to make us believe today“, Nachtigal was not a „colonial criminal“, the AfD motion states. The motion was met with rejection and indignation by all other parliamentary groups. The SPD parliamentary group said that the motion was hardly to be surpassed in audacity. more at bundestag.de

Majority of experts against tougher penalties for climate activists: The tougher penalties demanded by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for climate protest actions on streets and in museums are unnecessary according to many experts. In a public hearing in the Legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday, the majority of experts stressed that the existing legal remedies were sufficient in these cases, which were also covered by the freedom of assembly paragraph of the Basic Law. The hearing, which was chaired by Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU), was about a motion of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group entitled „Straßenblockierer und Museumsrandalierer hartere bestrafen – Menschen und Kulturgüter vor radikalem Protest schützen“ (20/4310). The background is the climate protests of the „Last Generation“. In recent months, the activists had, among other things, blocked streets and attacked works of art in museums. more at bundestag.de

Plans for an animal husbandry label do not go far enough for experts: The vast majority of experts see a need for major changes to the Federal Government’s legislative proposal (20/4822) to introduce a mandatory animal husbandry label for pork. This is the result of a hearing of the Committee on Food and Agriculture on Monday. The present draft, which was debated in first reading in the Bundestag at the end of December, neither improves the living conditions of farm animals nor increases consumer protection. The experts referred to the final report of the Competence Network for Farm Animal Husbandry (Borchert Commission), which had already presented an overall concept for the further development of animal husbandry in Germany three years ago. more at bundestag.de

Manufacturers to share the costs of plastic waste: Manufacturers of products made of single-use plastic are to share the costs of waste disposal in parks and streets. This is provided for in the Federal Government’s planned Single-Use Plastic Fund Act (20/5164), which will be debated for the first time in the Bundestag next Thursday. The law is intended to implement the requirements of extended producer responsibility resulting from EU Directive 2019/904. Specifically, it is intended that manufacturers of plastic products such as to-go cups, lightweight carrier bags, wet wipes, balloons and tobacco filters cover the „necessary costs of waste management measures, cleaning of public spaces and awareness-raising measures“, according to the bill. more on bundestag.de

LITERALLY:

My impression was that climate change was more present than I would have expected, and also more present than at previous World Economic Forums. In the official programme of the World Economic Forum, there are 235 events, panel discussions, lectures, and 33 of them were exclusively dedicated to the energy transition, i.e. the switch to renewable energy sources, the climate crisis and nature conservation. And it was also noted by many colleagues here that the climate crisis has more space in the programme than before.

Wolfgang Blau, Managing Partner Climate Hub Brunswick Group, on the green transformation of companies, one could of course ask the question: Was it enough? No, of course not. But it also became clear in the discussions: The controversy is no longer whether an energy turnaround, a switch to renewable energies, has to take place. The controversy is only how fast this transition must take place and how fast it can take place. …In the long-term risks for the next ten years, you have to look very hard to find the good old macroeconomic risk factors, such as a debt crisis. Rank one, two and three alone were all directly related to the climate crisis, and other risks in ranks seven and eight had to do with consequences of the climate crisis, such as migration on an unprecedented scale. Overall, of course, the climate crisis has been talked about here very much in connection with the war in Ukraine and very much in connection with the energy and energy supply crisis. The climate crisis itself has many other aspects, such as the need for fairness, how countries like Pakistan can now be helped more quickly. These issues had not been discussed as prominently as they should have been. But that would still have been a new level of discussion here in Davos. tagesschau.de

AFRICA:

Digitalisation in Africa: African countries want to participate in the digital revolution, but not according to the model of the corporations from the USA and China. Two visions for a new path. Africa is a digital continent, a continent of the mobile web that has more or less skipped the age of the stationary computer. Forward thinkers and creatives on the continent dream that Africa can give something of its enthusiasm for technology back to the world. sueddeutsche.de

Tanzania’s booming charcoal trade is driving uncontrolled deforestation: In Tanzania, charcoal or firewood is used for cooking in 90 percent of households. Many illegal loggers are literally making forests disappear. A particularly blatant case is the Ruhoi forest reserve . freitag.de

South Africa: Devastating power crisis in South Africa worsens. The country has been struggling with electricity supply for more than 15 years. But instead of solving the problems, the ruling ANC has only made things worse.The latest escalation of the power shortage threatens to plunge South Africa into recession. At level six, „load shedding“ costs the national economy around four billion rand a day, experts estimate: a massive 220 million euros. Because the traffic lights don’t work most of the time, traffic in Johannesburg is becoming increasingly chaotic. And because the batteries of the transmission masts are not sufficiently charged, the mobile phone network is also functioning worse and worse. derstandard.at

On the way to more acceptance – albinism in Africa: For a long time, people with albinism were excluded and discriminated against, especially in African countries. But in Kenya, the view is changing. In the last election, a person with albinism was elected as an MP for the first time. rbb.de

Kenya: Sad record: Last year, more wild animals died in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park than ever before. There, thousands of elephants, giraffes and zebras fell victim to a particularly severe drought. Animal rights activists are worried – there is no end to the crisis in sight. More than 6000 large wild animals have fallen victim to the ongoing drought in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park alone in the past six months. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), never before have so many animals died during a drought there since records began four decades ago. n-tv.de

DR Congo: The extension of MONUSCO is not good news for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN mission lacks the support of the population. jpg-journal.de

MORE KNOWLEDGE:

Biomass should be used more specifically in industry: Whether for food security, environmental and climate protection, as a building material, for the production of bio-based plastics or for energy generation – the limited and much-discussed resource biomass is already being used for these and other different applications. A recently published discussion paper by the NRW.Energy4Climate state organisation provides impetus as to where biomass can be used most efficiently and particularly sustainably in industry and for energy generation in the future. fair-economics.de

Virtual water consumption is immensely high: in Germany, each person uses around 7,200 litres of water every day, with only 130 litres being used for cooking, cleaning, washing and drinking. Moreover, we use only 14 percent of our own water, while 86 percent comes from abroad. The share of this virtual water has been rising for many years and has increased more than sixfold since 1930. Figures that show where we really need to start when it comes to saving water. The term „virtual water“ was coined in the mid-1990s by the English geographer John Anthony Allan. It refers to the amount of water used to manufacture a product. ingenieur.de

The reef grows under the rotor: the Netherlands is building the largest offshore wind farm in the world. It will supply hundreds of thousands of people with clean electricity and change the marine ecosystem in the process. Scientists and operators are trying a lot of technical things to ensure that it turns out well for porpoise, cod and oysters. Is that all well? Listening to Jennifer Dannheim, you get the impression: it depends. Dannheim, a scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, has devoted more than ten years of her research to the interaction of offshore wind farms and marine ecosystems. In principle, a lot of research is being done on this, but there are so many facets to the topic that some things are not so clear-cut. It is scientifically certain that marine mammals can be scared away by the technology, she says. And that the animals will return after the end of the construction phase. faz.net

Rental model: Mario Kohle rents out solar power systems for the roof. klimareporter.de
Sustainability: GDV anchors protection of biodiversity in its goals. cash-online.de
Investing money sustainably: What is important in sustainable funds. verbraucherzentrale.de

CALENDAR:

25.1. 2023 10:30

Berlin, Bundestag and online

Hearing on the global protection of biodiversity:

The global protection of biodiversity and the impact of the new framework for the protection of biodiversity are the focus of a public hearing of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday, 25 January. The session begins at 10.30 a.m. in meeting room 1.302 of the Jakob Kaiser House in Berlin and lasts two and a half hours. It will be broadcast live on parliamentary television and on the internet at www.bundestag.de. At the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal from 7 to 19 December 2022, the so-called CBD Framework for Biodiversity Conservation was negotiated and adopted, which must now be implemented nationally and internationally. According to the committee, one million of the eight million animal and plant species worldwide are threatened with extinction. Therefore, the protection of biodiversity must also be supported within the framework of development cooperation. In addition, interministerial action is required to better protect biodiversity and reduce negative impacts on the global South. bundestag.de

23.01.2023, 18-19:30

MUNICH AND ONLINE

Theory and practice of social tipping interventions

What does the concept of social tipping interventions mean for our practice? Which levers are central in the context of the health sector? Where does the planetary health and climate justice movement stand in Germany and globally? What strategic considerations should inform our next steps? These and other topics around the theory and practice of social tipping interventions will be addressed by our guests in conversation.

With Prof. Dr Harald Lesch, LMU Munich, Prof. Dr Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Helmholtz Zentrum MünchenDr Martin Herrmann, KLUG – German Climate Change and Health Alliance e.V. klimaallianz.de

THE LAST:

„Cleaning up the atmosphere“: It won’t work without CO2 removal – according to study

Without the active removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, it will probably not work. Researchers at the stocktake call for incentives and legal frameworks for the methods. Unsurprisingly, current efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions are far from sufficient to keep the Paris climate target of global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is also shown by the Climate Action Tracker in its balance sheet for 2022, although even reaching the 1.5 degree limit is dangerous because it would trigger several climate tipping points, as the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warned in September 2022. With around 40 billion tonnes of CO₂ emitted by mankind in 2022, it will only take eight years until the 1.5 degrees could be reached, calculated the Global Carbon Project. heise.de

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